Addressing-machine.



E, G. ERNST.

ADDRESSING MACHINE.

urmunom FILED APR. 10, 1909. RENEWED BBPT. s, 1910.

Patented May 2, 1911.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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ADDRESSING momma. AIILIOATION FILED APR. 10, 1909. RENEWED SEPT. 8, 1910.

Patentad may 2, 1911.

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JZMMEW h MM E, G. ERNST.

ADDRESSING MAGEINE. I APPLIGATION FILED APR. 10, 1909. RENEWED SEPT. s, 1010.

1 g Patented May 2,1911.

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E, G. ERN T.

ADDRESSING MACHINE.

APILIOATIOIT FILED APR. 10, 1909. RENEWED SEPT. s, 1010.

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Ti fww yfyfizassea/ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD G. ERNST, CLElTELAND, OHIO.

ADDRESSING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Tatent.

Patented May 2, 1911.

Application filed April 10, 1909, Serial No. 489,153. Renewed September 8, 1910. Serial No. 581,096.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, EDWARD G. Enns'r, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuy-ahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Addressing- Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention consists of means, adapted especially for use in and as parts of a circular-letter printing machine, for successively printing on such circular letters the names and addresses of the parties to whom such letters are to be sent, and for also printing the names and addresses on the envelops in which said circular letters are to be sent.

The invention is shown in the drawings embodied as part of a familiar type of printing or duplicating machine, viz., one having a reciprocating type-carrying bed and a rdtating platen. Butthe invention may, obviously, be embodied in other types of printing machines; and some parts of it may even be embodied in a machine adapted to I print the names and addresses on circular letters which were printed on an independent,machine; and on the envelops' or on either.

The invention is also shown embodied in a machine in which all of the printing is done through inking ribbons, so that the' matter printed shall simulate matter printed on a typewriting machine; but although some of the novel features relate to facilitating the use of such inking ribbons, the main novel features of the invention are equally well adapted for use in machines employing inking rollers or their equivalent; all of which will be plain from the following description and appended claims, read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a printing machine equipped with.

my invention, parts of the gears (Z and e and gear segment C being broken away to, Fig. 2 1s a show parts which they hide. plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the parts of the machine below the re-' ciprocating bed, which bed is indicated by dotted lines. Fig. 4 is an end view, from the front side of the machine, of the feed screw and associated mechanism for operating it. Fig. 5 is a sectional side elevation of the machine in the plane indicated by line 55 on Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view in the plane'indicated by line 6-6 on Fig. 2. Fig. 7 is a rear view of the feed screw and its associated parts. Fig. 8 is a rspective bottom view of one of the ad ress slugs;.and Fig. 9 is a vertical sectional view through the feed. screw, hopper and bed in the plane of line 99 on Fig. 2.

The printing machine shown includes a reciprocating type carrying bed A sliding in suitable ways on a frame B. This bed may be moved backward and forward by any suitable mechanism. As shown, the bed carries two racks a, a, one directed upward and one downward; and two rotating gear seg-- ments C, C", engage respectively with said S near the front side of the bed and anaddress slug G, to print the letter and its address, and the otber'to cooperate with an address slug when it is near the rear side of the bed in position for printing the en* velops. Each platen has a cylindrical surface which, however, goes about half way around the shaft E, wherefore as the bed is moving forward, 1'. e. to theleft, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, the platen will'cooperate with the type on the bed; but when I the bed is moving backward the platen will be swinging through the upper part of its path and does not therefore interfere in any way with the said backward movement of the bed.

A hopper H is fixed in aposition above the reciprocating bed and about midway between its sides. This hopper is designed to contain a supply of address slugs Gr, said slugs being platesof metal having the arrangement of letters constituting an address formed in relief on their top surfaces, and having projecting from their lower surfaces near the ends thereof the legs g, g. The four legs marked 9 are located near the corners of the plate, and the legs 9 are at the ends of the plate in line with the legs 9', but about midway between.

In a raised part of the top of the bed and extending from its're'ar edge, e. e. the top sideof the sheet, as shown in Fig. 2, to near the front edge thereof, are

feed screwu Knrounted directly beneath it in bearin gsj-carried by the bed. On, the bed is a? long tudinally. extended raised portion 7 bed has drawn back to .;ever, to the limit portion passes 9.13

bed, its legs entering the grooves-a a and sl0t.a,"and the legs 9 goingbetween two .IPiHS 9' 7*. ".ipelle'r a terminat ng in an abrupt shoulder a at '.'point justvbeneath the hopper when the the limit of its more me IItJ-"When the bed moves forward, this "shoulder by engaging-with the lowest slug pushes out from the hopper, and the raised portion (1 passes beneath the hopper and supports the stack of address slugs G therein. -When the bed is drawn back, howof its movement this raised from beneath the stack of slugs and-the lowermost slug drops onto the which project up from the prointothe slot a in said bed. While the forward movement of the bed is going on,- and before the slug has been carriedto the printing point beneath the platen, the

feed screw rotates imjthat'direction which moves the propeller-Bilforwardthat isto- 'ward the bottom of the'sheet asthe machine is shown in Fig. 2,. and said screwturns enough during the "propeller that the slugwill be moved this movement to so move forward to-}-the position uponthe bedl in which i't'isldesired to have it printed in. re

. lation to the type form S secured upon-the bed.-' When-the tion the -screw ceases' t'osrotate and the slug ,rand type-form slug has reached thls I posi will; then pass beneath the ;-platen. e 'andflwill? print upon theipaper' placed upon themen'd below the platen.

When the bed begins to move backward on vits return stroke this feed screw will rotatein the contrary direction,..and thereby the .slug will be carried backward acrdss the bed to a position convenient for use in printing the address upon envelops-that is' to say, nearthe rear edge of the bed; The

parts are so arranged that the this position when the bed has one-half of its return stroke. toward this position pushed by the fixed pin j The pin j however, is a movable pin under the nfluence of. a spring 9" tending to push it up into opef sing reaches made-about- While moving the; slug has been.

the center of the bed engages with the cam slug is being letter; of course, no further rotation of the feed and on the arm M is a ative position, but having a laterally projecting head 1' on its lower end. This head, during'the movement of the slug rearward and before the. slug has passed much beyond ribs a, Said pin j is drawn down out of engagement with leg g. During the remaining portion of the backward movement of the bed, the screw rotates in the opposite direction, and thereby the propeller is moved to its central position, to which place it arrives before the bed quite finishes the return movement. During most'of this backward movement the spring pin j is held down by said cam ribs, but is allowed to fly up just before the propeller reaches the central position. When, now, the bed begins its forward movement these operations are repeated, the pin being in a position to engage with the adjacentleg of the slug and push it forward.

Numerous devices for giving to the slug the back. and forth movements described may be substituted forthose shown, without departure from the broad invention. In the construction shown, the feed screw K isturned as stated by the following mech anism. On the front end of the feed screw shaft two pinions la, k are secured. Hung loosely on said shaft adjacent to the pinion 7c is an arm M in the outer end of'which a pinion m is mounted meshing with the pinion 70. Secured to the frame of the machine is a rack P with which the pinion we may engage as the bed is moving forward. This rack only extends for a short distance, namely, that which thebed moves while the moved from the middle position toward the front edge of the bed into the position for printing the address on a Then the rack is discontinued and,

screw can occur through that particular mechanism while thebed continues its forward movement. But if nothing were done to prevent it, the pinionwould engage said rack on thelreturn movement of the bed,

and thereby rotate the feed screw in the contrary d rection. But since this would be fatal tothe desired operation of the feed screw, means are provided for lifting the pinion from and holding it above the rack during the return movement of the bed. With this end in View an arm'N is pivotally connected with the arm M, and it has in its lower end a roller a which normally rides on a straight rail R by the side of the rack P. On the arm N are two shoulders a, 72?, pin m lying between said shoulders, whereby the movement of arm .N about its pivot is limited. One extremepositionwhich this arm may take is shown by full'lines in'Fig. 4,'and when the arm is in this position, the pinion m is allowed to engage with rack P. But win-an 130 semesthe arm N occupies the position shown by going forward the roller n strikes the shoul- 'ders i and the arm is swung to the position shown in full lines 1n Flg. 4t; and when it is in this position, the pinion at will en-- gage the rack. But when the rack has been passed, the roller 11. drops onto the low level. part 1 of the rail so thatwhen the bed makes its return movement the roller 11. will strike the shoulder T and the arm N will be swung to the position shown bydotted lines in Fig. 4; wherefore when 'the roller rides up onto the high level part r of the rail the pinion at will be lifted above the rack P. The other stated movements of the feed screw are produced. by similar mechanism. That is to say, the movement of the propeller J across the bed to the back side of the machine is produced by another rack I and an associated two level rail B. An arm M hung loosely on'the feed screw shaft carries a pinion m meshing with pinion is, an arm N pivoted to the arm M'- carries a roller 11 in its end. It will be understood that the length of the rack P will be equal to the distance which the bed. travels while the propeller is making its rearward movement across the bed of the machine, and that will be, perhaps, about one-half of the whole distance traveled by said bed. To impart to the propeller its rearward movement to the middle of the bed, another set of similar mechanism is employed connected, however, with the rear end of the fed screw shaft, and shown in Fig. 7. This mechanism includes an arm M hung loosely on the feed screw shaft, an arm N pivoted thereto and having a limited movement, a pinion m mounted on said arm M and meshing with an interposed A reference to using the same for the printing of circular letters in simulation of typewritten letters. Instead of using inking rollers therefor, inking ribbons are employed. One of these ribbons T may be secured at'i'ts ends to and Wound upon two spools t mounted upon the ends of the bed. From these spools the ribbon passes over two thin supporting bars 23 and over -the type form 5 and the. address slug-.G which .has been moved in proper relation thereto. This ribbon is to be kept fairly taut and the bars 1; are of such height that they will hold the ribbon above the plane of the top surface of the address slug so that the same may easily move under the ribbon.

In the printing of circular letters it is desirable to be able to print the signhture as well as the letter on the machine, but this cannot be done in a satisfactory. way if the signature is to be printed in the same ink as the body ofthe letter. In order to enable the printing of the signature so that itmay simulate pen writing, a narrow ribbbon W is extended across theribbon T above the same and directly over the electro-typeof the signature, and the ends of the ribbon VV- This ribbon may be a black ribbon, and

therefore the signature when printed on the machine through this ribbon will appear black just as it would if written with a pen.

The address slugs have in addition to the name and address, the salutation Dear sir or its equivalent. -When these slugs have been moved to the rear part of the bed so as to be available for printing the addresses upon envelops, it is desirable that this salutation Dear sir or its equivalent shall not be printed. The inking ribbon T employed for this purpose goes crosswise of the machineover the slug and is of such width that it only covers the name and ad dress. This ribbon, after crossing this part of the slug, goes over the inclined guides V,

V to opposite sides of the platen e tov two ribbon spools V, V, which may be mounted means for holding the address slug thereon in the printing position. The rear side of the bed and its associated parts constitute the envelop printing mechanism, and the grooves 03 a therein constitute the means for holding the address slug thereon in the printing position. The part a of the bed serves to support the slugs in the hopper, and to withdraw the lowest slug therefrom;

and the guide grooves 03, a in this part of the bed serve as means for guiding the slugs from one printing position to the other. This specific construction constitutes a cheap and efficient e-Xemplification of certain necessary parts of the invention, which parts,

however, are obviously capable of wide va- ,riation withoutedeparture from the generic invention as defined by the appended claims. 'iIti's not intended that the broader claims shall be limited even tothis particular type ofipr'intin machine, namely, the type which .Iemploys t e reciprocating and-rotating platen, becanse,'-obvicusly,'the invention is capable of adaptation to nearly every type .of printing machine. Some parts of the invention, as defined by'the-claims, are capableiof use in machines which do not employ otherparts thereof; for example, as stated in'the introductory part'of the specification, the invention may be employed in a machine which does not print the letter, but

prints only the addresses on letters previouslywritten in another machine." The envelop printing part of the invention may, if desired, be" omitted, or used with or without the letter printing part of the machine. It is, therefore, not the intention that the appended claims shall be limited to any greater extent than the terms plainly imply.

In using the machine as shown and as scribed, the operator places a sheet of paper on the ribbon T' over the type form. The

bed then begins its forward movement. An address slug is withdrawn from the hopper and moved forward to the proper position relative to the letter form; and as the paper passes beneath the platen,e the letter, its

address and signature are printed. The pa-- per is then removed, the bed begins its return movement, and the. slug is carried across the bed to the position for printing the envelope and left there, and then the slug propeller returns to its central position 'on the bed in readiness to cooperate with the then lowest slug in the hopper. Inthe next forward movement a new letter is printed and the address islikewise printed on an envelop for the first printed letter. As

these operations are repeated, each slug as it moves to the rear of the bed pushes off-ofv the bed theslug which has justv served its purpose of printing the envelop. The envelops and letters being addressed in the same order, it is thereafter necessary to fold' the letters in the order in which they are placed, and to put each in the associated envelop. I Itis obvious. that the practicability of amachine such as is shown, embodying the in vention will be increased by providing means for imparting regular short move-;

ments ofthe inking ribbons,--but means for this purpose are common in"typewritin amachlnes; and since theyare not parts 0 the invention herein claimed, it has not been though necessary to. show any means for this purpose.

" 'Havingdescribed' my invention, I claim: 1. Theeombination of a slug holding hopper adapted. to dischargeslugs through its lower end, a type-form-carrying member located beneath said hopper and movable backward and forward in a fixed lane across the lower end thereof and having a slug guide which extends in a direction relatively transverse to the direction in which 'said me'mber moves, means holding the slugs in said hopper until the" slug guide on the movable member is beneath the hopper and for then allowing the? bottom slug in the hopper to fall therefrom onto-said member and into'the embrace of said guide, means for moving the'slu alongsaid guide to a printingjposition t ereon'and *for temporarily allowing it tore'main stationaryin that position and forsubsequently -movin said slug away from said position and 0 said member.

",2. In a printing machine, the combination of atypej-carrying member, its associ ated platen, an inking ribbon carried by the type-carrying member, and a-second inking ribbon which overlies and rests upon a ortion of the first mentioned inking rib on, thereby preventing that portion of the first mentioned inking ribbon which is covered by the second ribbon from making any impression on the surface of the paper on which impressions are to be made,both of said ribbons being located over that part of into said guide-way and for moving them.

along the same into a printing position and then away from said osition, an ink ng ribbon carried by said ed and extending overthe type form and over the address slug in the printing position, and a second inking ribbon. overlying apart of the first men'- tioned inking ribbon.

4. .In a printing machine, the combination of a reciprocating bed adapted to support a of a reciprocating bed having transverse 4 guide-grooves its surface and a slot through said bed between said guide-grooves,

an address slug having legs entering said guide-grooves and havin downwardly projecting-,lugs which are. alined with said slot,

a transversely movable pro eller, movablein' a; guide-way on the said he and-having two upwardly projecting pins which are adapted to engage with said lugs, one otf said pins being vertically movable, means for travers- 7 .ing said propeller back and forth in its guide-way, and means for automatically drawingydownward the movable pin of said carrier so asflto disengage it from said. slug.

' 5. In a printing machine, the combination guide-grooves and a slot between said guide grooves, a hopper fixed above said bed,

of a reciprocating bed having transverse means on the bed for withdrawing the lowest slug from said hopper, a propeller movable in a guide-way on said bed beneath thebed is making one complete reciprocatoryf movement.

6. In a printing machine, the combination of a movable type supporting member having a slug guide-Way extending transversely upon the same and having a slot parallelwith said guide-way and havingbelow said slot a guide-Way for a slug propeller, a slug propeller movable in said guide-way havlng I two upwardly projecting pins of which one pin' is vertically movable and has a head upon its lower end, means for moving said propeller back and forth in its guide-way and a cam rib on said member engaging with said head for drawing said movable pin downward.

7.. In a printing machine, the combination of a movable member having on its top a transverse slug guide-way and having a slot parallel with said guide-way, and having also a propeller guide-way, a propeller movable in the last mentioned guide-Way and having upwardly extended pins adaptedto.

enter said slot and engaging with a slug in the slug guide-way, said propeller having a downwardly projecting threaded boss, a feed screw mounted on said movable member engaging said boss, a pinion fast to the end of said feed screw, an arm hung loosely on the feed screw shaft adjacent to said pinion, a pinion mounted on said arm meshing with the pinion on the feed screw shaft,

a'fixed rack and adjacent thereto a rail ter-- minating'at its ends in vertical shoulders leading toa rail portion in a lower level, an arm pivoted to the arm previously mentioned having in itslower end a friction roller adapted to ride on said rail, and means limiting the movement of said arm about its pivot.

In testimony whereof, hereunto affix my signature in the presence of two Witnesses. EDWARD 'G. ERNST.

Witnesses: E. B. Gniomus'r, E. L. THURSTON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

